


Bonding Through Talking

by xXxCrimsonRabbitxXx



Series: Bonding Series [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-11
Packaged: 2019-04-21 14:18:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14286747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xXxCrimsonRabbitxXx/pseuds/xXxCrimsonRabbitxXx





	Bonding Through Talking

**Author’s note: Hey guys! I’m sorry it took me so long to get this part finished. I was working on… four other projects that I’ve either started or have been working on for years. This part will focus on a lot of things so it’s most likely going to be longer than the first part. I’m also going to do my best and make more parts for this after I’m done with this one. I originally had only one part planned, until I realized I needed a second part to get everything put out into the air. So let me know if any of you want me to make more and I will find a way! Oh, I’ve decided to change something from the end of the last part. Instead of Lance doing yoga, he’ll be doing a ‘tai chi’ type of thing that’s mixed with Ba Gua Zhang. It’s something I do every day if I’m not sick—which has been me the last two weeks—and it’s quite relaxing.**

**Anyway, here’s the next instalment to the Bonding series! Enjoy!!!**

 

Pidge had to work overtime on making the cloaking device for the pod she was going to take to the Garrison so she could hack into their systems for Keith’s medication name, formula, and how much each dose was. She was reluctant in saying that Keith should go with her but knowing where they were going to be made Pidge think he wouldn’t. No, more like shouldn’t. Lance would be a better chance, but they were going to Earth, they couldn’t exactly shoot at anybody on their home planet if they were caught. Lance may be a great shot now, but with his sniper riffle, he could keep an eye on their perimeter easier than Keith running off and doing something stupid.

 

“Hey Pidge, I think that’s everything.” Hunk said as he finished helping Pidge with the wiring in the cloaking addition and closed the panel up. “Lets give it a test run.”

 

“You can go ahead and do so, I need to find Lance and Shiro.” She tells him as she got up and stretched.

 

“You still haven’t talked to Lance about going with you?”

 

“He’s been busy keeping Keith occupied so he doesn’t have another episode… at least during the day. Didn’t you hear him screaming last night? I’ve been hearing him wake up screaming since we learned his story.” Pidge sighed. “Anyway ,they’re either in the kitchen, common room, or the training room and my short legs make it feel like I’m going on a hundred-mile hike.”

 

“Good luck! I shouldn’t be gone too long, and if you see Allura on your search, tell her she’ll need to have a look out for my pod so I know it works.” Hunk said, standing as he took off the goggles from his head.

 

“Thanks again for helping me with it Hunk. If I had to do it by myself again it would have taken me twice as long to get it done.” Pidge said as she ran towards the door for the green lion’s hangar, turning to give him a wave before she disappeared into the Castle’s hallways.

 

*#*#*

 

“Keith! Come on, you need to take a break. You’ve been training since breakfast!” Lance howled just before squealing when a gladiator flew towards him from one of Keith’s attacks. He managed to dodge it in time, but he was _not_ prepared for Keith to charge at him with an angry, red glow in the shorter male’s eyes.

 

With a scream, Lance ran out of the training deck and bolted down the hallway. Keith was hot on his heels no matter what Lance did to go faster. But as he skidded around a corner, he nearly crashed into Pidge if he didn’t twist and turn out of the way.

 

“Why in the hell are you running?” Pidge screamed after him.

 

“Keith’s on the war path! He can’t hear me yelling at him to stop so I’m running!” Lance said and dashed further down the corridor.

 

Pidge only looked at his retreating form with a raised eyebrow, but when she looked back where Lance came from, she couldn’t help but see that, indeed, Keith was charging towards her. His bayard active in his sword and not slowing down.

 

“Wai-Wait, Keith! Stop, please!” Pidge cried out as she backed up until she backed into the wall.

 

“What… what are you doing here Sammy?” Keith heaved in between breaths as he slowed down and stopped. “You’re supposed to be at school! Why are you here?”

 

“Wha—” Pidge was about to ask, but Keith went down to her level and covered her mouth to keep her quiet.

 

“If you’re going to skip school again, at least go to the library and not here! Mr. Gyeong will skin you and more if he finds you here.” Keith hissed, his attention going back to looking down the corridors.

 

In the brief pause Keith gave her, Pidge was able to notice how pale Keith’s skin was compared to what it used to be. The heavy, black bags under his eyes extremely prominent and caused his eyes to glow a bright violet if the light was hitting it just right, other than that it looked dull and lifeless.

 

There was a crash of something down the hall on Keith’s right, making him jump back and get his bayard ready to attack anyone that would possibly come towards him. Pidge found her opportunity when she looked and saw that Lance had gotten Shiro and, thinking quick on her feet, activated her bayard and drew her arm back.

 

“I’m sorry Keith.” Pidge whispered before grabbing Keith’s left arm and shoved her bayard into his side, shocking him until he dropped his own bayard and fell to the floor twitching.

 

“Woah, who knew Pidge would do something risky as that. I swear, Keith was on the damn war path when he saw me!” Lance huffed when both he and Shiro stopped running and stood next to the downed red paladin. Shiro had knelt down to check on his pulse and heaved a heavy sigh when it appeared that Keith was just unconscious from the shock.

 

“I didn’t know what else to do! He… he was hallucinating and called me ‘Sammy’ and said I should be in school or the library instead of ‘here’ and that someone named ‘Mr. Gyeong’ would skin me alive and more because I was ‘skipping school.’” Pidge said, her words nearly running into one as she spoke and almost started pacing. “Has he been getting _any_ sleep this week?”

 

“He’ll need to be taken to the med bay to get his wound looked at and to see if he has any more.” Shiro said as he stood, Keith in his arms bridal style as he spoke. “Anyway, go see if Coran can come help me, just in case a pod is needed.”

 

“I’ll go get him.” Lance volunteered, but Pidge stopped him with a shout as Shiro walked towards the med bay cautiously as to not wake Keith up if he could help it.

 

“Lance! I need you to go with me. We’re almost ready to leave. Hunk’s checking the cloaking on the pod now with Allura.”

 

“Why not have Hunk go with you? He’s the chemical nerd.”

 

“I need you because you’re our sharpshooter. You can keep an eye out on our perimeter and notify me if someone spots us. We can’t hang around because I’m not waiting there to see if they treat us like they did Shiro.” Pidge sighed. “Besides, I’m only going to get information. I won’t need Hunk until we come back to do the chemical work… which reminds me I also have to down load a prescription manual while we’re there so we can have the complete chemical makeup of his medication.”

 

“I’ll be there!” Lance beamed. “I can’t believe you think I’m a sharpshooter!”

 

“Well, you are. I know how hard you are on yourself so… Oh, and change into your paladin armor. We’re treating this like any other mission for paladins of Voltron.” Pidge said with a small shrug. “Now go get Coran before Keith wakes up!”

 

“Right! On it!” And he disappeared down the corridor.

 

“Now… to go check on Hunk and see if his test run is done.” Pidge whispered to herself. “Or should I go check on Keith? Pack the things I need for this quick trip? Gah!” She ran towards green’s hangar first to pack her laptop, then ran to her room and changed into her paladin armor before running to check on Keith. She figured that they’d have enough time to check him over and, if needed, get him into the healing suit without female eyes and into the healing pod. Deep down, though, she prayed that it wasn’t needed. She didn’t think she could deal with the blame and guilt that she hurt her friend enough to need assistance from Altean technology.

 

Upon running into the med bay, Pidge noticed that Hunk was already done with his test run, Allura had joined, and Lance was in his paladin armor. They all raised their eyes to look at her as she ran in and skidded to a stop at the empty gurney everyone was surrounding. The glowing, bluish-green light signaling that Keith was indeed put into the healing pod and a pang of guilt pulled at her stomach, twisting it into knots.

 

“I got here as soon as I was packed and ready to go.” Pidge huffed.

 

“You’re fine, we were just discussing what we needed to do with Keith.” Shiro said with a slight wave of his hands. “It… turns out your shock wasn’t what actually hurt him and put him unconscious. You only stunned him enough to drop his weapon.”

 

“Then what…”

 

“He’s been hurting himself, and not just with the Gladiator!” Lance snapped, gaining her gaze and she noticed his hands were shaking in fists. “He’s been cutting himself with something! The cuts are all over his wrists and thighs and I just… can’t understand why he stooped to doing it.”

 

“Lance, they most likely started after he hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep.” Shiro sighed. “They looked two days old at most. Just long enough to get somewhat infected from poor care. And Pidge said he was hallucinating, so it’s obvious that what we’re already doing isn’t enough.”

 

“I’m not mad at him, I’m mad at the assholes that did what they did to him.” Lance admitted, but he wasn’t the only one that thought the same thing. “I also blame the people that were supposed to protect him from shit like this!”

 

“Why don’t you and Pidge get ready for the trip to Earth, Lance.” Allura suggested. “The faster we learn what his… medication? is, the faster we can help him even more. It seems that he needs it more than we thought.”

 

“Allura’s right.” Hunk finally said. “I tested the cloaking and it works with no problems. You just have fifteen minutes with the pod at least, seventeen minutes at most before it stops working. It was a rush job to get it made so I’m shocked it’ll last that long.”

 

“That’s more than enough time for me to hack into their system. It’s human technology, it’s not as difficult as Galra so I shouldn’t take more than a few minutes at most to get in and grab what I need.” Pidge smiled before hugging Hunk, who stood on her right. “Thank you for all your help.”

 

“Hunk, I’ll be needing your guidance on where to make the wormhole near Earth’s surface, and we’ll be leaving to your solar system so we can be in range just in case something were to happen and I can’t open a wormhole to get you guys back.” Allura says. “It’s just something I haven’t done in a while, making a special wormhole that can’t be detected, so I don’t know how much energy it will take for me to get it made.”

 

“That’s perfectly fine, Princess.” Hunk said with a small smile. “The only thing we’ll have to do, is wormhole over the Pacific Ocean where I’m hoping no fishing vessels will be. The last thing we need is fisherman calling for the coast guard to shoot Lance and Pidge down… or try to.”

 

“I’ll be cloaked as I go through the wormhole, so they won’t see green, but they will see the wormhole, which should be fine… they’ll be considered crazy if they reported it.” Pidge said with a small shrug.

 

“Well, lets get going so that when Keith gets out of the healing pod the medicine will be ready for him!” Lance cheered, trying to put himself and the others in a good mood despite the situation.

 

“I do have a question though.” Coran spoke up as he, Allura, Hunk, Pidge, and Lance left the med bay. “What would happen if you’re caught?”

 

“Most likely they’ll try to shoot us… capture us and do experiments to see what the alien technology has done to our bodies… try to take apart our suits and bayards to see how they work… will most likely try to get to green if her cloak stopped working. They’d definitely interrogate us for answers they’re happy with.” Pidge listed off nonchalantly. “But hey, if we do get noticed, we won’t be there long enough to get captured. Besides, green would probably tear them apart for trying. That’s one thing I’m wanting to avoid at all costs.”

 

“Alright… well, we part ways here, take care, both of you.” Allura sighed.

 

“The pod is already inside green below the cockpit.” Hunk said with a thumbs up and a small grin. “See ya when you guys get back!”

 

With that, everyone took off in their given directions. Lance and Pidge running to green’s hangar while Allura, Coran, and Hunk ran to the bridge.

 

*#*#*

 

Shiro sighed as he sat on the now cleaned gurney, scooting far enough so he could bring his feet up and cross them so he can sit comfortably while watching Keith in the pod. It hurt to admit that he feels like he failed Keith in so many ways.

 

He had hoped that when he met Keith while the red paladin was in high school, when they clicked after many months of trying to get through to him that he wanted to be friends and to help him once he got into the Garrison, that Keith didn’t hide things from him like this. Shiro understood the red paladin’s past not coming up, but the self-harm he’d wished Keith would have opened up to him about. He knows it’s not the first time. Remembering one time at the Garrison, when Shiro had tried to help teach Keith some self-defense after hours, that Keith would have days where he couldn’t handle physical contact because of the pain that was clearly evident whenever his wrists and thighs were touched.

 

It sank into him now that Keith had never stopped hurting himself back then, not for a while. Then he thought about what Keith said when he told everyone about his past and how Keith said he hadn’t done something like this in a while by mentioning how tempting it is. So he could at least be glad he had stopped for a while, but relapsing was serious.

 

“Keith… is it really that hard to trust people with your life?” Shiro found himself asking out loud, though he knew the answer; Keith never trusted anybody here with his life, not even himself. “I hope we’ll be able to get through to you that we’re here to help you.”

 

Shiro’s pulled from his thoughts when he heard a ‘woosh’ as the doors to the med bay opened. Turning to see who it was, he relaxed when it was Hunk walking through those doors instead of Allura.

 

“I take it they’re already gone?”

 

“Yeah, they shouldn’t be too long. We’re just past Pluto so if we’re needed we can get to Earth in a few doboshes.” Hunk nodded as he stood next to the gurney Shiro had perched himself on. “Anyway, Coran said Keith would be in there until tonight but it wouldn’t help with his insomnia. Said the pod would help heal his cuts and infection and at least some of his malnutrition since it looks like Keith stopped eating too.”

 

“Yeah… thanks Hunk. And I mean it.” Shiro sighed as he turned his head to look at the yellow paladin. “Keith would be grateful of your guys’ help too, but I don’t know how he’ll be when he gets out of the pod.”

 

“Coran also mentioned that he should eat before we take him to get some rest.”

 

“I’m thinking about how we should do this… but it’s not going to be fun for all of us, Coran and Allura excluded.” Shiro said, his back straightening. “It’s most likely we’ll have to take shifts in making sure he gets the sleep he needs. It’s obvious he won’t do it on his own and Lance’s methods aren’t working at all like we had hoped.”

 

“Lance said everything was working for a few nights, but then Keith avoided him at all costs about… four quintants ago. Kept telling Lance he had other things to do, only to be found training at three in the morning. I’ve found him at least once… I think all of us except you have found him training late at night.” Hunk said with a small shrug of his shoulders. “I mean, Lance has been complaining about it constantly since he found him last night… or should I say ‘this morning’ at four. It’s apparent that he must have had a nightmare four quintants ago to make this happen.”

 

“Yeah, and we can’t get answers until he’s rested and fed. We can’t have him hallucinating anymore. It’s also a shocker that we haven’t been attacked since this happened, but I’m getting a feeling that our luck won’t run a whole lot longer.” Shiro said as he straightened his legs and hopped off the gurney.

 

“We’ll talk more when Lance and Pidge come back.” He added after a few minutes of silence and looking Keith over in the pod. “I’m going to go ask Coran if he can do a scan in a little bit.”

 

“Good idea. I’ll stay here and keep an eye on Keith and the pod. I’m not needed in the bridge at the moment unless Lance does something stupid to get them caught.” Hunk said, chuckling a bit at the end.

 

“I’m keeping positive thoughts, Hunk, you should too.” Shiro chuckled with him and left the med bay.

 

*#*#*

 

“How lucky are we that we somehow get here when it’s still dark out. I thought we set the clocks on the ship to mimic our time.” Lance whistled.

 

“I may have miscalculated, but that can be fixed when we get back.” Pidge sighed as the two flew through the wormhole and entered Earth’s atmosphere for the first time in days, or was it weeks? “But I know that my days aren’t off at least. We’ve only been gone two weeks in Earth time.”

 

“I’d like to say hi to my family though, but that’s for another day. Today, we’re here for Keith.” Lance sighed before psyching himself up for their mission. “So, where will I be while I’m on patrol watch?”

 

“You’ll be cruising along in the pod after dropping me off by the west wall on the roof. That’s the best vantage point I have in getting into their systems.” Pidge answered. “I should be done in five minutes, but that depends on whether or not they changed their systems while we were gone.”

 

“Don’t talk like that, you’re smarter than anyone I know! You can do this Pidge!” Lance said, hoping his words would get rid of her bad thoughts.

 

She only smiled as she got green to speed off towards the coast. They were about three hours normal travel from the Garrison, but green managed to make it in less than five minutes. Pidge absolutely adored the advanced technology she was traveling in. It made her stomach turn to butterflies in joy at how smooth the travel was.

 

Upon reaching the Garrison, Pidge landed green about where they found blue after scanning the area to make sure none of the commanders from the Garrison stationed themselves there from their stunt with blue before disappearing, literally, off the face of the planet. They took the pod after letting green’s cloaking down since she was hidden well and rushed towards the school. They only had a short amount of time to work with before someone noticed them. Pidge only prayed that they didn’t change their server too much while she was gone.

 

“Pidge, relax, please. The tension in this pod is starting to get suffocating because you’re nervous.” Lance said, catching her attention and pulling her from her thoughts.

 

“Sorry, I’m just worried they may have changed their system.” She sighed as they reached the school and hovered over the roof where she was to be dropped off. So far, the cloaking was working and none of their sensors noticed they were coming.

 

“You’ve hacked an alien super computer and had no clue how their systems worked. Like I said, you’ll be fine.” Lance said, again, as he put a hand on her shoulder before she stood. He was right, and with a deep breath, her worries disappeared and she smirked at him before the front of the pod disappeared, the cloaking still active.

 

“Keep your coms running, I’ll call out when I’m almost done.” Pidge noted, then jumped out of the pod and landed on the roof in a five foot drop. The front of the pod materializing and Pidge could no longer see where Lance was, but heard the slight hissing of it disappearing to keep watch on the perimeter.

 

“Testing, one, two.” Lance said through his com. “Just making sure I’m not muted.”

 

“Ten-four.” Pidge smiled and quickly opened her laptop as she sat and got to work. A grin spread on her face when she realized that Iverson didn’t think about telling them to update their security because she was able to get into the system in seconds. It took her no time to get into Keith’s files and collect the data she needed and even managed to download the prescription database so they could make all kinds of medicine while they were in space if they were needed.

 

She was just about to talk into her coms as the download finished when she heard something to her right; the sound of a door opening.

 

“Lance! I need you ASAP! Someone’s coming onto the roof!” She hissed quietly into her coms as she shut her laptop off the second the downloads were saved and hid behind one of the many beams.

 

“Roger! I see them… but it looks like a student. Not gonna take any chances though. I see where you’re hiding and I’ll drop in front of you so they won’t see the pod when the front opens.” Lance said seconds before she heard the pod hiss towards her about three feet below the roof.

 

Looking down, she watched the front of the pod open and dropped her laptop for him to catch. The transfer being soundless, surprisingly, but she almost tripped on her feet when she shifted to jump down into the pod.

 

“Who’s there!” The unexpected person screeched, caught off guard because they didn’t think anyone else was up there with him. But Pidge ignored the call and hopped into the pod, shutting the front just as someone rushed over to see what was going on. Apparently, they didn’t see what caused the noise and, hopefully, blamed it on birds. At least that’s what Pidge believed from the look on the kid’s face.

 

“Get out of here!” Pidge hissed again, praying that they weren’t heard as Lance took them away from the school.

 

Lance let out a breath he’d been holding as they flew towards where they hid green. “I want to call this mission a success!” Lance cheered, but his smile fell when he saw that green was surrounded by jeeps with her shield up.

 

“Fuck! And I made sure I scanned the area before leaving her with the cloak off!” Pidge whined. “We don’t need Hunk or Shiro to help, but we’ll have to be fast when we get close to her so they don’t get inside her barrier range while I get into the cockpit.”

 

“Roger.” Lance nodded and sped the pod up, the cloaking device shutting off earlier than expected, but there was no use in having it on now. They were found out and had to move fast.

 

Swiftly, Lance maneuvered the pod between the rocks so they could just pull up from a nose dive and into green’s cargo area. They were shot at a couple of times as green lowered the part of her barrier for them to enter, but they weren’t touched before they were shielded. A smirk spreading on Lance’s face at how he’d been able to get better at piloting in such a short amount of time, letting out a loud ‘woop!’ as they made it into green and landed the pod.

 

“I feel like I accomplished something today!” Lance cheered as Pidge rushed to the pilot chair to get green moving and to contact Allura.

 

“We’re not out of the woods yet Lance.” Pidge huffed, but she smiled nonetheless as green powered up the rest of the way and she opened up communications.

 

“You guys ready?” Allura asked in the video feed.

 

“Open it where we are! We got company!” Pidge yelled, hoping she didn’t sound rude, but she wanted to get away from the Garrison commanders as fast as possible.

 

“On it!” Allura said before shutting the video feed off. Seconds later, a wormhole opened about half a mile in front of them and Pidge shot towards it, almost not caring if the people from the Garrison got hurt or not. She had other people to worry about, and that was her, Lance, and Keith.

 

*#*#*

 

_A sigh pulled from Keith’s lungs as he sat curled in the dark, small closet. His head hurt and his lungs burned from just being put through the ammonia and Clorox gas an hour ago, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. He’d stopped coughing blood a few minutes ago, so he figured he was fine now. No trip to the hospital to be made. He was only grateful enough that the witch forgot to close the air vent before locking him in there for an hour._

_To say he’s cold is an understatement. He wished for a blanket, but nothing like that was ever given to him before with this foster family. He was about to fall asleep for the night, but the clink of the lock being messed with sent him jolting awake. He knew it was well into the night, and usually if they were to come get him without the need of getting ready for school, they left him alone to sit in his own piss even._

_But as the door swung open, he knew he was in for a world of hurt. His foster mom had been drinking, he could smell the alcohol from where he sat curled in the furthest corner he could get to. Keith kept his voice quiet as the fat woman reached into the closet and dragged him out by his hair and dragged him to the kitchen. He didn’t so much as let out a grunt or a whine when she shoved him into a chair and tied him down before stuffing his mouth with three socks and layering tape over his mouth to keep him quiet. He was so used to it he just stopped struggling against the witch._

_The next thing Keith knew, was something definitely new; two fingers on his right hand snapped like twigs between a device he didn’t even know she had. He choked on his sobs that got caught in the gag and he clenched his teeth as much as he could to focus the pain elsewhere. Refusing to look down, knowing that looking would make it hurt more._

_“Didn’t think I’d find out you used the air vent to keep yourself alive, did you?” She hissed, using the pliers to twist the middle finger on Keith’s right hand, causing the boy to scream into the gag until he couldn’t breathe._

_Keith wanted to throw up, but the gag was making it impossible to do. He did manage to swallow his bile as the ringing in his ears broke for a second only to hear the crunching of another finger being twisted out of place._

_The pain morphed and suddenly Keith was laying in bed, music playing in his ears. He hurt in other places and the room was painfully familiar. It was his room when he lived with Mr. Gyeong. Keith curled into a ball as he lay on the bed, the thin blanket providing hardly any warmth as ice flowed through his veins. It was only a matter of time before Mr. Gyeong would find out he brought home a book from the library and that he had a library card._

_Keith wanted to shove it in his face, how he was able to get something for free, but the man always said Keith was a liar and would “teach him a lesson” even though that meant Keith couldn’t walk right for two days and miss a day of school on top of that. Right now, grades were all that mattered to him. He had to get everything perfect so he could get accepted to the Garrison; the one place where he could escape to so he could use it as an excuse to leave this filthy, fucked up planet._

_With sleep evading him, Keith quietly sat up on the bed and shifted so he could rest back against the head board. Reaching over the side, he pulled up his backpack and dragged out his homework he still had to finish. Even with the rule that lights were to be out by eleven, Keith didn’t care because he wanted to finish his homework. Lights out was three hours ago, and he knew Gyeong was sound asleep in the room across the hall, snoring loudly in an alcohol drenched slumber._

_Sighing, Keith pulled out his college level algebra homework and got to work. He didn’t have a calculator for most of it, but that’s something he could do without. He knew how to do problems as simple as quadradic formulas without such technology as long as the answer was close to a whole number. Being in an advanced course at the age of fifteen had its benefits, even if he was the only one reveling in the high that he was one step closer to getting into astrophysics and the fighter pilot program at the Garrison._

_His attention was pulled from the last problem half an hour later when a loud crash echoed into the deadly silent house. Quickly, Keith put his homework away and quietly put his backpack on the floor before sliding so he’d be laying down. He’d done this many times before as he laid there over the covers, pretending to be asleep as his breath slowed down reflexively right as the door to his room opened. Stumbling into the room was his roommate; Sammy, with Gyeong hot on his heels._

_Sammy, a new addition to the foster home, was still trying to get used to Gyeong’s rules, but the boy was a stubborn idiot, more so than Keith was, and fought tooth and nail against the older man. From one of his many talks with the boy late at night when Gyeong was passed out in the living room, Sammy once told him that Gyeong was nothing compared to the house he came from. His mom beat on him and his dad whored him out for the sake of money. Claimed that anything Gyeong would dish out on him didn’t bother him one bit. Keith knew better though, he’d seen the distant look in Sammy’s eyes, illuminated by the full moon, and how dead he was on the inside._

_“Get your ass out here! Where the fuck have you been?” Gyeong roared, a hand reaching out and grabbing the shorter boy’s sandy blonde hair, yanking him back with a yelp and a chuckle._

_“I was working.” Was all Sammy said before Keith sat up in his bed slowly, pretending that the noise had woken him up and rubbing at his eyes with a half yawn. “Why else would I wear this skimpy ass outfit and heels? My customers loved me, want to be my customer too?”_

_“Shut your whore mouth.” Gyeong hissed, throwing the boy into the room by his hair before angry eyes turned to Keith. He knew he did wrong when he ‘pretended’ to be waking up, when he knew full well that pretending to sleep kept him safe from Gyeong’s hands when he was in a rampage._

_Keith didn’t know what was going to happen to him until Gyeong disappeared from the doorway, only to return a few moments later with rope and duct tape._

_“Boy, I have a customer for you right here.” Gyeong smirked, his eyes glowing as he looked Keith over like a predator seeking its prey._

_“I’m not cheap and I am_ not _a bottom.” Sammy hiccupped from the floor where he landed._

_“I’ll pay whatever.” Gyeong beamed and towered over Keith like a giant. “Remove your clothes, filth.”_

_Keith didn’t want to, and for hesitating, a slap to the side of his head got him moving, removing his night clothes consisting of a ratty t-shirt and a pair of thin boxers. Once naked, he couldn’t help but look at his knees and try to cover himself with a shiver. But he didn’t have the chance to get comfortable before Gyeong turned Keith around, pulling his arms back behind him as he used the rope to tie his forearms together and wrapped the rope around his chest, pinning his arms to his sides tightly. It was so tight that the rope cut into his skin. Once the rope was tied and couldn’t come undone with Keith struggling. Next, Gyeong grabbed the role of duct tape and wrapped it over Keith’s mouth and around his head several times before pushing him down to the mattress and flipped him onto his back. The duct tape was then applied to Keith’s thighs once they were squeezed together. Gyeong didn’t bother doing anymore before turning him back onto his stomach and ass in the air._

_“Bondage, that’s kinky as fuck.” Sammy mused as Gyeong helped him up to his feet and pushed him towards the bed. It wasn’t until now that Keith realized that Sammy was so far gone with alcohol and drugs that he didn’t know what the fuck he was doing._

_Struggling, Keith tried to get the tape around his mouth to move, but knew it was a failed attempt with how tight it was wrapped around his head. Tears filled Keith’s eyes when he felt Sammy line himself up with his ass, no prep, no nothing, before pushing in a single thrust. Pain rippled through him like fire with each move Sammy made, his body jolting forward as Sammy slapped his ass hard many times, thinking that all of this was completely consensual._

_Keith did the only thing he knew how._

_He closed his eyes tight, drew himself into his mind and…_

_Checked out. Stopped existing._

 

The healing pod hissed hours later, causing Lance, who had taken Hunk and Shiro’s spot to watch over Keith while Hunk and Pidge were on the other side of the room making Keith’s medicine. It was a single, quick trip to two planets to get the needed ingredients to make the anti-depressants and anxiety medication for Keith. They’d been working on it for two hours now and they were almost done. But the hiss caused them to stop what they were doing.

 

Pidge had stopped by where Lance had once been and opened the coms, calling everyone to come to the med bay immediately since Keith was done healing.

 

Lance had rushed to Keith’s side before the red paladin would lose his balance and fall face first into the floor. He wanted to immediately scold the shorter male, but that could wait until later.

 

“Keith!” Lance said, his voice lower than usual since he didn’t think Keith would appreciate loud voices at the moment. “Talk to us Keith.”

 

“Wha…” Keith groaned as the door to the med bay hissed opened and Shiro, Coran, and Allura ran through.

 

“You’ve been in a healing pod for about a quintant, you had a horrible infection and… I kinda had to hurt you so you wouldn’t hurt anyone else.” Pidge said as she stood in front of her friend, hoping he wouldn’t be mad for what she did if he remembered.

 

Keith groaned and brought a hand up to his face, rubbing at his eyes a bit until they could open. The first thing he saw was Pidge’s face, her eyes tired but wide open, hair disheveled and needing a wash, and a small smile on her face. But what Keith really saw, was Sammy with his pinpoint pupils, eyes unfocused, hair messed up from many rounds of sex, and the phantom pain of what happened in his nightmare thinking what he saw was real.

 

Instantly, Keith pushed himself away from Lance, almost not realizing the Cuban was there as he stumbled back and tripped on the stairs. His eyes wide, shaking, burning with tears, as he couldn’t look away from Pidge—in his eyes, Sammy—as he tried to find a place to hide.

 

“G-Get awa-away from me!” Keith shrieked, causing confusion amongst the other paladins and the Alteans. Keith couldn’t hear the others talking to him as blood rushed through his ears. Yet he couldn’t get the sight of Sammy out of his mind as he slid back as far as he could until his back hit a wall.

 

Breaths became shallow, chest becoming tight as he closed his eyes. Expecting pain to course through his body as before so he did what he did best before he could feel it. He checked out. _He stopped existing._

 

*#*#*

 

“What… what happened to him?” Pidge asked, but Lance, that stood to the side, knew exactly what happened to him. His sister did the same thing after she was raped a few times when she expected their father to beat her for her choice in keeping the child. Keith escaped to where he couldn’t feel pain anymore, that was certain. But why he did that after seeing Pidge was another story. It only told him that they didn’t know everything about the red paladin like they thought.

 

“Don’t answer, I know what happened…” Lance sighed. “He mentally checked out… because he thought someone was going to hurt him.”

 

“But, he was looking at me when that happened! What did I ever do to him for that kind of reaction!” Pidge howled, her exhausted mind causing her blood to boil at the revelation.

 

“It’s not you, Pidge, obviously. He must have had a nightmare in the pod and he got out at the rear end of it. It’s clear that whoever was hurting him, looked an awful lot like you.” Lance said before turning to Shiro and motioned him to come over. “He may be like this for a few hours, but that doesn’t mean it’ll give him rest. It’s just… disconnecting himself from reality is all he did. My sister did this many times when dad got angry at her for keeping her kid after she was raped so… I know about this a lot.”

 

“We should get him to his room and comfortable.” Shiro suggested. “We’ll get him some food at breakfast. Sleep seems to be more important right now than food.”

 

“I agree… and should someone stay with him so that when he wakes up we’ll know he won’t hurt himself?” Hunk said, his voice low while Pidge had stomped off towards their work station. They were almost done and sleep could wait another half hour.

 

“True… I’ll be there when he wakes. I don’t mean to be horribly rude, but if he wakes up from another nightmare, he won’t think about the few people that hurt him in those nightmares.” Lance suggested. “No offence Pidge, Shiro.”

 

“No offense, so far he’s only attacked you because he replaces ‘you’ with a hallucination.” Shiro said, but Lance was right. Keith said he looked like the man that raped him and now Pidge looked like someone else that hurt him.

 

“I’ll pull up the last scan the pod did and save the data for us to look at in the morning.” Coran offered.

 

“And I’ll go land the castle on the last planet we were on. They were happy to see us when we stopped there for the last few ingredients for Keith’s medicine.” Allura said with a small smile.

 

“Thank you Princess, Coran. Make sure you two get some sleep too!” Shiro said, calling out to Hunk and Pidge who huddled over their work station.

 

“We’re getting the quarter doses right now so he can work his way back up to what he used to take. It’s not healthy or wise to give him full dose right off the bat. So, we’re making a month’s worth of quarter dose instead of doing quarter, half, and three-quarter doses.” Hunk said, not looking up from what he was doing as he spoke.

 

“Alright. And Pidge…” Shiro said before turning his attention to the shortest paladin.

 

“Don’t take what Keith did seriously… I know. It’s obvious that whoever this Sammy person is, they did something horrible to Keith and he’s reacting to a nightmare-slash-hallucination. It’s plausible so once I get some sleep I won’t be bothered by his reaction to me.” Pidge sighed. “It’s not his or my fault that I resemble someone from his horrifying past.”

 

“Thanks Pidge, he’ll be heartbroken enough when he learns how he treated you and Lance.” Shiro said as he picked Keith up in his arms, not liking how light he was but they’d be able to fix it soon once they get Keith rested enough so he wouldn’t hallucinate.

 

Once Keith was comfortably in his arms, Shiro and Lance left the med bay, working their way through the corridors towards their rooms. Lance’s room was surprisingly right next door to Keith’s, so when they got there, Lance made a quick stop to his room to do his routine real quick and change into night clothes. Shiro thought that maybe Keith wasn’t the only one hiding things, but he let it slide and shifted Keith in his arms a bit to open his door.

 

When the door to Keith’s room slid open, Shiro walked in and laid Keith on his bed. He wanted to take Keith out of the healing suit, but didn’t think that the red paladin would appreciate it. Especially as of late with his nightmares and he wasn’t sure if Keith would wake up while he was getting him dressed just to flip out and attack him. That was the last thing on his mind, so he grabbed Keith’s blanket and covered him, hoping that the teen would get some rest before he woke up.

 

*#*#*

 

A pained groan pulled from Keith’s throat as he shifted on something comfortable. He was finally warm and he didn’t want to move. His whole body was sore for some reason, but the urge to piss was growing with every passing second. So, with another long groan, Keith forced himself to stand, shivering once the warmth shifted to cold.

 

He forced himself to move to the attached bathroom on the opposite side of the room. And by how dim his room was, it meant that it was still early morning or at least close to it.

 

“Keith?” A voice groaned behind him as Keith was about to walk into the bathroom, causing his body to freeze before turning around so fast his vision swam.

 

“Who the fuck is in my room?” Keith demanded. “Lights on!” he added in a demand towards the room, the lights switching on to a blinding volume, but he managed to blink away his discomfort as he looked around to find the source of the voice. Finding Lance sitting on his floor in a pile of blankets and pillows, face slathered with a mask substance that kind of creeped him out.

 

“Gods! You’re finally awake!” Lance howled as he shot up to his feet. “You’ve been asleep for two days after you got out of the healing pod!”

 

“What?” Keith asked. “Healing pod? What for?”

 

“It’s understandable that you don’t remember, but we’ll answer your questions later when everyone—everyone as in all of us paladins—sit in the common room to talk.” Lance said. “I’m just so glad that you’re awake. We were worried that you would keep sleeping and that the healing pod didn’t help you.”

 

“How long was I in the healing pod?”

 

“Roughly one quintant, but that’s not the point, you need to get dressed. We would have taken you out of the healing suit, but worried that you’d wake up while we changed you into some sleep wear. Didn’t want you freaking out the second you woke up… again… so we kept you in it.” Lance explained as Keith looked himself over, curious as to why he was in the healing suit and pod in the first place. But he said nothing as he turned back to the bathroom and closed the door. If Lance was right, he was sleeping, and healing, for three days straight. That meant he hadn’t used the bathroom for three full _fucking_ days.

 

*#*#*

 

Lance was ecstatic when he woke up to see that Keith wasn’t in the coma-like state anymore. He expected the red paladin to forget a lot of things, but not over a week’s worth of memories. It’s obvious that when they talked to him later after breakfast, they’d be walking on eggshells, especially Shiro, himself, and Pidge. He couldn’t help but chew on his lip as he searched for an outfit to get Keith, settling for a fresh pair of boxers, black t-shirt, and a pair of red flannel night pants he got Allura to help him make with a machine somewhere in the castle he can’t remember directions to at the moment. He knew Keith would appreciate the thought, hopefully.

 

Five minutes after Keith locked himself in the bathroom, he emerged looking slightly fresher, the ends of his hair damp from most likely splashing water on his face as Lance turned to look at him with the said clothes in his arms.

 

“I bet you’d like to shower, here’s an outfit to put on, Allura said training is on hold for a little bit until you’re completely back on your feet.” Lance tells him as he shoves the clothes into Keith’s arms. “Everything you need is already in the showers, so lets get going.”

 

Lance only hoped he didn’t make Keith uncomfortable as he pushed the shorter male out of his room, down the hall, and into the showers. He half hoped that Keith wouldn’t hate him for staying to get his mask off and changed for the day.

 

“You go shower, I’ll be out here cleaning my face up and changing in one of the changing stalls.” Lance says. The look on Keith’s face telling him that the red paladin was grateful for no questions or that Lance thought of bringing him here first before taking him to breakfast. But it was obvious that Keith didn’t pick up on the new routine the paladins took on just yet.

 

He watched as Keith disappeared into the showers, his nerves calming when he heard the water turn on and that Keith was seriously taking a shower. Lance felt a small smile tug as his lips before he walked to one of the sinks and turned on the water so it’d get warm. He didn’t have another face cleanse to do this morning since the mask he found doubled as a cleanser. It made him giddy knowing that Altean’s were serious about facial care just as much as he was.

 

It took half an hour before Lance was happy with his face, changed, and his teeth brushed. He realized that he didn’t grab Keith anything for his feet so he ran back to the bedroom to get a pair of socks and the red lion slippers he made for Keith while waiting for him to wake up. It was a long shot, but he hoped Keith liked them.

 

“Oh, there you are. I was about to go back to my room to put this in the laundry.” Keith said, a yawn pulling from his lungs as he walked out into the corridor.

 

“I’ll get that later but put these on before your feet turn to popsicles.” Lance said with a small smile as he pushed Keith back into, what he now deemed, the locker room. “And you need to brush your teeth before we go get breakfast.”

 

“That’s in the bathroom in my bedroom… and I already did that.” Keith stated as he gladly took the socks from Lance’s hands but paused when he saw the slippers. “They’re cute.”

 

“Thank you!” Lance beamed. “I made them for you while you were sleeping.”  Lance noticed the slight blush on Keith’s face as he tried to duck and slide them on. He wouldn’t pester him about his shyness until later.

 

“I’ll be right back so I can walk with you.” Lance said a moment later as he gathered all of the dirty clothes and rushed to his room first for his clothes, then Keith’s room. He made a note that he’d have to clean up the blankets and pillows later before he left and skidded to a stop in front of Keith, who was actually waiting for him in the hallway.

 

“Why… are you going out of your way to make sure I’m taking care of myself?” Keith asked, making Lance stiffen for a few seconds. He wanted to tell Keith everything that happened before he was put into the healing pod, but he shut his mouth and half lied instead.

 

“Because we’re friends and I was worried about you.” Okay, it wasn’t even close to a half lie, but he avoided the terrible explanation that would happen later after breakfast.

 

Keith accepted the words, a slight blush dusting his cheeks again as he turned and walked towards the kitchens. Lance hot on his heels, talking up a storm so they wouldn’t have to walk in silence. Lance may not need vocal recognition, but he knew that Keith appreciated not walking in silence since he was listening to every word that spewed from the blue paladin’s lips.

 

When they walked into the kitchen, Hunk was just serving breakfast that looked like it consisted of orange looking food goo. He hoped it tasted like oranges, that’s all he had to say.

 

“Keith!” Everyone in the room howled, getting up from their chairs and rushing over to the red paladin, but making sure he had space from them all so he wouldn’t feel boxed in.

 

“I can’t believe you’re awake!” Hunk cried.

 

“How do you feel?” Allura and Shiro asked at the same time.

 

“Guys! He needs a bit of space.” Lance warned as he stepped between Keith and the others. “I know you all want answers, but maybe he should eat first?”

 

“Oh, sorry.” Hunk said, but then beamed as he continued talking. “I think you’ll like this! I finally made something with the food goo to taste like something from Earth!”

 

“I tried it earlier this morning and it’s like a bowl of oranges!” Pidge beamed with him, her favorite fruit being oranges. “It’s to die for!”

 

“Pardon, but what are oranges?” Allura asked, eyes full of wonder and curiosity.

 

Pidge went into deep conversation with Allura about oranges and the different type of citrus fruits that were on the planet as they walked back to the table. Shiro ended up walking back with Hunk, who had inevitably been pulled into the yellow paladin’s explanation on his experiment on the food goo he did the previous night since he couldn’t sleep.

 

“Thanks… Lance.” Keith whispered, his hands unable to keep still as he picked at his nails on one hand with the other. “Would it be bad if I… you know… said I wasn’t really all that hungry?”

 

“I would be livid, now sit down and at least eat a little bit, you don’t have to eat everything given to you. A little bit shows us that you’re taking care of yourself.” Lance sighed, pushing Keith from behind towards the table where they usually sit and forcing Keith to plop down onto his chair in front of a plate full of the orange food goo.

 

Looking defeated, Keith sighed as Lance sat down next to him and picked up his spoon. He reluctantly took a scoop and tested it out on his tongue in small bits. To say that Hunk made the best food goo was an understatement as his eyes glowed. Lance couldn’t help but smile as he watched the glow on Keith’s face when he tasted the food and dug into his plate without remorse. Everyone else was also supporting a smile as Keith ate his food, cleaning his plate and even asking for seconds before everyone else was finished eating their first plate—especially before Hunk.

 

*#*#*

 

“Okay everyone, we’re doing a type of bonding exercise where we’ll be in the common room.” Shiro announced when everyone was done eating. Still in awe that Keith managed to put away three full plates of food goo without having the urge to throw up. That was an hour ago. The only reason why he was announcing the bonding exercise now was because he wanted to give Keith and the rest of them time to digest their food in case anyone felt like getting sick.

 

“What kind of bonding exercise is it?” Keith asked as the five of them filed into the common room and he slid down onto the couch, knees drawn up to his chest as the others followed suit on the other sections of the couch. “As long as it doesn’t involve what happened last time I think I’ll be fine.”

 

“It’s nothing like that, trust me. Allura and Coran promised there won’t be anymore bonding exercises like that unless you’re ready for it.” Shiro assured, but he didn’t miss the discomfort Keith held at his words.

 

“Anyway, Shiro and I decided that during this bonding exercise, we’d’ talk about ourselves. Throw everything out there and exposing our deepest, darkest secrets without fear of the other’s hating, fearing, or having absolute disgust in you. We’d never feel that way towards each other anyway, but I know some of us may feel that’ll happen, especially me.” Lance said before Shiro could explain himself. “Besides, it’ll not only help let everyone know what we’re truly afraid of, it’ll give us something to work with in case something triggered a bad memory and we’d be able to stop it before something bad happens.”

 

“Couldn’t have said it better myself, Lance.” Shiro smiled before getting serious. “Who’ll go first?”

 

“I will, since I want to say what I have before I turn chicken.” Lance said quickly before pausing for a moment.

 

When Lance opened his mouth to speak again, he told the group how he had always been self-conscious about everything he ever did. How he never had any faith in himself so he’d always say things to make himself look good even though it was always annoying and obnoxious. Explained he was like that because he was always bullied as a kid for not being able to do anything other than talk shit and lie about almost everything.

 

“There was one time I actually got scared of my life in middle school when one of the major assholes wanted to put me in my place. I had been spreading rumors about him that were actually quite true, but he couldn’t accept himself and his gay ass because he had been living in a home full of homophobes so he tried to make himself believe he was straight as a board.” Lance explained. “Almost got raped at knife point in the boy’s locker room until someone from class walked in to get us and he was thrown in juvie. Why he thought raping me would prove he was straight, I’ll never know. I didn’t bother to ask because I thought opening my mouth would earn a stab in my throat.”

 

Lance went on to explain how his dad was not only quite abusive, but was most abusive towards him because he liked doing girly things like sewing, knitting, baking, and gardening. It got to the point that one time when his dad caught him knitting one night that he grabbed the needles and stabbed Lance in the hand. The excuse given at the hospital was that he was running around with the needles and fell. His mom believed the lie because she could sleep through a natural disaster and would have slept through their neighbors getting shot, which she actually did once. His mother never knew the truth and he admits being ashamed that he let the lie live for so many years.

 

“Eventually, my mom and dad divorced when he tried to beat my sister and put her into a forced miscarriage. It was then that I actually told the truth about what happened with the knitting needles and, thinking she’d be mad, would slap me. But she ended up hugging me instead and cried. My sister’s child was born healthy, but three weeks prematurely a few months later so it was all good in the end.

 

“Despite all the bullshit during my middle school years, there’s not really a lot I’m afraid of. I’m just my own worst critic and will sometimes find myself in a funk where I blame myself for everything that goes wrong. I’ll even stop eating and lock myself away for a few days until I’m out of it. I’ve never had medicine for it and I don’t plan on taking any because I use that Tai Chi/Ba Gua Zhang stuff to calm myself down and refocus on what’s important. I’m also sure that my dad would have killed me if he ever knew I was bisexual.”

 

“How are you bisexual?” Pidge gasped. “I mean, you flirt with every single woman you find!”

 

“I overcompensate with the flirting because for a long time I didn’t want to believe I was bi… thanks to my dad. But old habits die hard and I came out of the closet when the divorce was finalized. My family still loves me… except for my Abuela.” Lance answered with a small shrug and a raise of his eyebrows. “I still sew, knit, love baking, and gardening so nothing really changed about me. I just stopped hiding it after the divorce.”

 

With that, Pidge went next, telling everyone how she was the butt of every joke imaginable in her old middle school because she was so much smarter than everyone around her. How it almost got to the point that she didn’t even want to try and get into the Garrison to follow her brother, but he managed to convince her to keep studying.

 

“The Garrison doesn’t know, but every night my brother and I always talked with dad while he was on those secret missions in space. Dad and Matt had managed to make a two-way encryption that was actually hard to decipher unless you knew the key.” Pidge explained, her face beaming and eyes glowing, that is until she remembered her dad and brother were still missing. “The only thing I’m afraid of is losing my family… and that I’d never be able to save them before they die.”

 

“We’ll find them, Pidge. I promise you that.” Shiro said, reaching over to put a hand on top of her head since he sat next to her. “I won’t rest until we find them either.”

 

“Thanks, Shiro.” Pidge smiled weakly.

 

Hunk declared he was next and told everyone basically what he said last time; how his uncle from his dad’s side of the family suffered from paranoid-schizophrenia and how he was a nuisance to the family, but added the only time his uncle had broken into the house when Hunk was the only one home and nearly convinced his ten year old self that the government was hunting them down because they were aliens.

 

“Yeah, my uncle freaked me out in more ways than I thought possible. His words sounded so credible to a ten-year-old!” Hunk said loudly. “It wasn’t until dad came home to find my uncle trying to take me out of the house to hide with him that my dad had to call the police and convince them his brother was kidnapping me so they’d arrest him. I had nightmares for a few months, but I eventually got over it when I learned that my uncle’s problem was paranoid-schizophrenia. I did my own research to find out about it because I wanted to learn on my own instead of being told.”

 

“Did your uncle try anything again after that?” Lance asked, Keith couldn’t find it in him to get his voice to work.

 

“After the police arrested him and questioned him, they deemed him crazy, especially when a psychiatrist went to talk to him while he was in holding and managed to try and get him some help. It worked for a little bit but he just couldn’t stick with his medication. He also went through so many combinations but they also didn’t work with him as well as everyone hoped.” Hunk said. “My parents were happy I’m an only child because they feared my uncle would have been worse. He was never that great with kids, especially during his psychosis episodes.

 

“Oh, I’m not really scared of things unless you count my worry for everyone else… food is also a comfort for extreme nerves…” Hunk added, his voice growing soft as he spoke. “But I do love cooking, no way around that.”

 

The four of them went into deep conversation, their focus off of the red paladin and he couldn’t be anymore happy about that. He wasn’t ready to talk about these kind of things like everyone else was. He had been hoping to take everything to the grave that he didn’t explain to them the first time. But when a hand rested on his shoulder, Keith was pulled from his thoughts and look to see who was touching him, only to find that it was Lance. Stupid Lance…

 

“I know talking is what you do best, but before you do we have some things to ask you.” Lance said.

 

“All… alright.” Keith sighed, knowing he wouldn’t be able to escape the interrogation and brought his gaze to his knees.

 

“First…” Shiro said as he spoke up before everyone else did. “We’d like to know what happened last week to make you stop sleeping, if you can tell us.”

 

“What are you talking about?” Keith asked, lifting his gaze towards Shiro, an eyebrow raised. “The last thing I remember is telling you guys the shit I went through and Lance dragging me off to try… whatever he called it.”

 

“You seriously can’t remember?” Pidge asked, her voice low as she spoke in case Keith suddenly remembered for some odd reason.

 

“Yeah… so what happened?”

 

“Well… from what we were able to learn, you stopped doing that exercise with Lance after four days, then suddenly you stopped eating and stopped sleeping. We thought maybe a nightmare was the cause of it.” Hunk explained. “It was getting bad because for a few days we found you training in the late hours of the night.”

 

“Yeah, three or four in the morning.” Lance injected.

 

“And it took us forever to get you calmed down even then to at least shower and close your eyes for more than five seconds.” Hunk continued.

 

“It got to the point that the day you went into the healing pod, you started hallucinating while you were training.” Shiro added.

 

“You went after me like I was the cause of all your problems.” Lance huffed. “I seriously thought you were going to kill me.”

 

“Then when Lance disappeared, you nearly ran into me and were calling me ‘Sammy.’” Pidge said, then went into explaining what Keith had told her, adding that when his attention was back on Shiro and Lance running back down the hall towards them, she had to stun him to drop his bayard. “After you were shocked enough to drop the bayard, you fell to the ground twitching and went unconscious. I thought maybe I seriously hurt you.” She added, her voice falling in the end.

 

“When we got you to the med bay, we were able to find your wrists and thighs were covered in cuts that got infected. Only Coran and I saw them, though, since we got you into a healing suit and into the healing pod before Hunk ran in and soon after Allura, then Lance and Pidge.” Shiro explained further. “We were surprised that you even had the energy to ignore your pain and continue to train the way you had.”

 

Keith could only stare at them, eyes wide. They weren’t looking at him anymore as they spoke from memory. But Keith hadn’t heard a word since Hunk said something about possibly having a nightmare as his memories flooded in his mind. He remembered waking up one morning, fearing for his life after having a nightmare from when he lived with that woman… That fat, ugly woman that always tried killing him through poisoned food, poison gas, and breaking his body, just to keep him alive to pretend nothing happened. He remembered locking himself away in Red during the day and talking to her about everything he’d been worried about, only to find himself in the training deck for hours instead of going to bed. Completely skipping out on meals because he didn’t think he could stomach anything. He thought he was doing alright, even with everyone yelling at him for training until the wee hours of the morning and using the knife he’d always carry with him to cause pain so he’d think about something else. Keith truly believed that he cleaned them up good enough to not get infected, but apparently that wasn’t so.

 

“Yeah, and when you got out of the pod the next morning, we tried to help only for you to freak out the second you saw Pidge, screaming at her to get away from you and then suddenly you went limp.” Lance said, breaking Keith from his thoughts. “I’d seen it before from my sister, so I knew you kind of escaped into your mind to get out of whatever pain you thought you were going to be in but… that’s when you were in a coma-like state for two days.”

 

“I…” Keith started saying, but his words caught in the back of his throat. He bit his tongue as he looked anywhere that didn’t involve a pair of eyes staring into his own, not caring that he bit hard enough for warmth and the taste of iron to fill his mouth. When a hand touched his shoulder, he flinched away from its warmth and was about to swallow the mouthful of blood out of habit, only to have Lance send him a glare.

 

“Don’t you dare do what I think you’re about to do.” He hissed. “I need a bowl or something, Keith bit his tongue and it’s bleeding.”

 

“How’d you…” Pidge was about to ask only to see that blood was dripping down the corners of Keith’s lips a tad before she rushed over with a half-empty bowl of food goo that she abandoned when they started talking since she didn’t finish eating the same time everyone else did. She always took a while to eat her food and now was glad for it.

 

After Lance took the bowl from her, he held it under Keith’s chin, allowing Keith to spit out the blood that built up in his mouth and couldn’t help the hiss that escaped between his teeth.

 

“He’s going to need cold water and some cloth, he really bit his tongue.” Lance said, and Hunk was about to go get the stuff because he still couldn’t handle the sight of blood but was stopped when Keith started speaking.

 

“Guys, it’s alright… I’m used to this and it’s not that big of a deal, is it?”

 

“You’re not supposed to ingest blood, Keith, it can get you sick.” Shiro sighed.

 

“That’s not what I’m… I’m talking about.” Keith said, his voice going quiet the longer he spoke. “I… I’ve swallowed my blood so much that I actually don’t get sick on it anymore.”

 

“You still need water to rinse your mouth out and hopefully help your blood clot so you’ll stop bleeding.” Hunk said, his face somewhat pale before he runs out of the room.

 

Keith only shrugged, his gaze elsewhere as everyone else stared at him.

 

“I’ll explain when Hunk gets back… okay?” He whined when it started to get uncomfortable.

 

Shiro and Pidge finally look away to make him more comfortable, Lance is still holding the bowl under Keith’s chin, not trusting the red paladin to hold it steady enough since he could feel Keith was shaking underneath the hand still resting on his shoulder. It was only a couple more doboshes before Hunk rushed back into the common room with a large thermos of cold water and a small washcloth.

 

“I got the best thing I could fine cloth wise.” Hunk promised as he placed the items next to Lance and went back to where he was sitting earlier and talked with Pidge so he didn’t have to look at the blood no longer dripping from Keith’s chin. Keith wasn’t insulted, he knew that Hunk didn’t do well with the sight of blood since the yellow paladin mentioned it all the time, along with him getting motion sickness constantly.

 

“You clot easily don’t you?” Lance muttered when he took the bowl out from below Keith’s chin. His answer only being a nod before he reached down to get the thermos and poured Keith a bit into its lid and handed it to him.

 

Keith gladly took the small cup and dumped it into his mouth, swishing it around before being handed the bowl back and spitting it into the leftover food goo now stained with blood. Lance made Keith do this several times to make sure no more blood was lingering in the red paladin’s mouth. That made Keith a little nervous because he wasn’t used to people doting after him still, despite what happened a week ago.

 

“Alright, we’re here to listen if you’re ready to talk.” Lance announced as he scooted back and took the bowl from Keith’s hands and putting it on the couch between himself and Shiro.

 

“I… okay…” Keith sighed when everyone put their attention back to him. He couldn’t help but fidget under their gazes, and the only reason he started talking was the fact that he had to remind himself several times that they weren’t there to hurt, but to help him.

 

“When I was ten, almost eleven, I stayed with that woman I told you about that’d lock me in the bathroom with the Clorox and ammonia mix for half an hour or so at a time, she had always tied me to a chair… Kinda like how Mr. Gyeong did, but she made sure there was something to keep the tape off of my skin because she didn’t want to hear any complaints about tape marks on a child in her custody. Well… she always did stuff to me that’d cause a trip to the hospital two days later when I’d get an infection.

 

“It always involved some sort of knife or tool from the garage in her husband’s workshop. At first, she’d just cut me up and it’d be blamed on me and seeking attention. It was never life threatening and wasn’t considered suicidal so the nurses and doctors at the hospital always cleaned them up and gave me stuff to fight off the infections. But after about a month, she resorted to using only plyers… and would pull my teeth out whether they were ready or not. She would only do one tooth at a time and would pull the next one when the adult tooth came through, but it was enough to make me sick and get infected more often. She wouldn’t let me spit out the blood, always forced me to swallow the blood no matter how sick I got afterwards.

 

“When she ran out of teeth, and was being questioned by a lot of the doctors and dentists, she took me to, she tied me to a chair after dragging me out of the closet by my hair. She gagged me this time, which was new, and used duct tape to keep whatever she stuffed in my mouth to stay and proceeded to use the duct tape to keep me in the chair as still as possible. I… just let her do whatever to me since I was already used to it and… before I could brace myself for the pain, she broke two of my fingers with the plyers. I wasn’t allowed to make noise so when I screamed into the gag, biting down so hard I nearly cracked several teeth, she then twisted another finger until it dislocated and tore skin.

 

“She had figured out I used the opened air vent to breathe fresh air while she locked me in the bathroom with that Clorox and ammonia gas and was punishing me for it. Kept saying I was supposed to die then anyway and would claim that I ran away so she’d get publicity. Well… that was also the night her husband called the police and she was arrested after breaking the rest of my fingers and my thumb. Screaming at me and telling me how much of a piece of scum I was and how no one ever wanted me… said I was abandoned by my parents because of it. I… almost believed her until I, months later, forced myself to remember that dad died in an accident. Pretty much ignored my mother’s existence around then and told myself she died giving birth to me even though I somehow felt that was a complete lie.”

 

“Is she still rotting in prison?” Lance asked.

 

“I believe so… they didn’t force me to testify in person and they convinced her to plead guilty so… as far as I know yes. I refused to hear her verdict when her husband came to visit me at the orphanage. To apologize but I never blamed him for anything. He was never home enough anyway to know how she actually treated me until the end so…”

 

“Please tell me that’s the worst of it.” Hunk pleaded, but whined when Keith shook his head and glanced over at Pidge for a second before looking away and at his knees.

 

“In the last foster home, with Mr. Gyeong, was when I experienced the worst possible. My roommate, Sammy Davis, had been pulled from an abusive home where his mother beat him daily and his father sold his body for cash. He couldn’t escape the life he’d been living for several years so he’d whore himself out almost every night and would come home drunk, high off of something, or both… Pidge, you look almost like him if you didn’t wear the glasses.

 

“Anyway, one night he came home way past lights out—which was no later than eleven and if you were caught being up he’d make you regret it—and made a bunch of noise that woke Gyeong up from a drunken slumber and was caught as he was walking, or more so, stumbling into our shared room. Gyeong questioned him quite loudly about why he was out and learned that the boy whored himself out on a regular basis and was quite drunk and high.

 

“Well… Gyeong found it hilarious. So hilarious in fact, he gave Sammy a customer by forcing me out of my clothes and tied me in a ridiculous pose and practically handed me over to this fifteen-year-old that didn’t know what was consent or not. He got off on watching him rape me several times before Sammy passed out sometime later. I had checked myself out before the first was even finished and I didn’t ‘come back’ for several days. So I can basically say that Gyeong had his way with me too while I was out of it but I wouldn’t know. My entire body would have hurt whether he did or not, which it did. After waking I still couldn’t walk right without a limp for three more days.”

 

Keith went silence after that, but when the air became so thick he could have sworn he’d be able to cut it with a finger, he added, “This happened more than once, and I was beat every time Gyeong found out I tried telling Sammy about it so…”

 

“Does Sammy know the truth?” Pidge asked, her words hoarse as she tried to keep herself from crying.

 

“Yeah, after Gyeong was arrested, Sammy visited me after I woke up and I told him the truth… I sometimes regret it because a week later he was found dead in his new foster home, hanging from the ceiling fan. I learned this a day after and… I pretty much tried to get out of my hospital bed, despite my lack in ability to walk, to try and kill myself by jumping off the hospital roof. How I was going to get there I don’t know, but I had pretty much given up then for a while. I would have tried harder if I didn’t meet Shiro when he was going to high schools to recruit freshmen to try and get into the Garrison.”

 

“Really?” Shiro asked, his voice weak.

 

“I’d say so, even though I didn’t stop cutting until my second year at the Garrison when you wormed your way into my life and some months after.” Keith admitted with a small shrug as he cracked the knuckles on his right hand out of habit. Talking about what happened brought back some phantom pain and cracking them a few times released some pressure.

 

“Did you remember anything to share with us Shiro?” Pidge asked, even though she doubted that their leader would have for many reasons.

 

“Not yet, but I will tell you guys when I do remember something. I kind of feel bad being the only one not sharing stuff.” Shiro said with a small sigh.

 

“Don’t worry about it, Shiro.” Lance smiles. “Besides, we’ve all had enough of the depressing stories for a while anyway.”

 

“No kidding.” Hunk sighs.

 

“So we can call our bonding talk over?” Pidge asked. “I have some things I need to look over and it’s going to take a while to finish.”

 

“Yeah, the exercise is over.” Shiro nods. “And Keith, you’re forbidden to go to the training deck for a while, not until you’ve recovered and I can see that it’s going to be a few more days to a couple of weeks. So I want you to focus on relaxing, eating when you’re supposed to, and getting the rest you need.”

 

Keith wanted to retaliate. Training was his life and he could already tell he was falling behind after no training for three days, but he just sighed and silently agreed. He’ll have to find a way to escape the team to get at least some training in, training bots and gladiators or not.

 

“You’ll be sticking it with me today Keith.” Lance announced, looping an arm over the red paladin’s shoulder. Causing him to tense at the touch, but he doesn’t shove Lance off of him. “I’m going to show you another way you can relax and keep your thoughts out of those bad memories.”

 

With that, Lance grabbed the bowl that sat on the couch next to him and dragged Keith behind to follow. Lance wasn’t going to let Keith out of his sight or out of reach if he could help it. Their first stop would be the kitchens where he could clean the bowl.

 

“What… is it that you want to show me?” Keith asked, hesitating because he almost didn’t want to know.

 

“I’m going to show you something. But don’t worry, I think you’ll enjoy it if I call out a challenge.” Lance shrugged with raised eyebrows as he finished rinsing off the bowl and put it in the dishwasher. “It’s quite harmless, so lets go.”


End file.
